Capitalize On Time Changes To Become a Morning Exerciser

November 5, 2015 •

Daylight savings time and jet lag in particular get a bad rap for being annoying and taxing on our bodies and disruptive to our schedules.

While this is true if all you want to do is wake up and do your 9-5 it doesn’t have to always be such a negative thing. Follow these 3 metaphor-saturated steps to make the most out of daylight savings time changes and/or your jet lag.

How To Hack Time Savings & Jet Lag To Become More Productive

That’s right. Don’t be the victim; make time change your victim! To quote the cliche, “in crisis there is indeed often opportunity”. Well, if having to change your clock of take a long haul flight is a mini-crisis then here’s how you leverage it to capitalize on an opportunity to change your sleep/wake cycle for the better.

Step 1: Acknowledge Discomfort, Accept, Then Move On

Life is always serving up steaming hot piles of sh*t. That is a fact. However, being the amazing creatures human beings are we have the ability to twist and contort what we’re given into something else entirely.

When life serves you up a steaming pile of sh*t don’t get down on life, instead see that pile of feces as the best possible source of nutrient-rich fertilizer for whatever it is you’re trying to grow.

Whether it’s fresh organic vegetables which lead to a healthier diet and thus a healthier body or a patch of marijuana; whatever you choose to fertilize with that steaming pile of sh*t is up to you and the possible outcomes can have immeasurable positive impacts on your life.

What I’m trying to get at here is daylight savings time sucks. Being jet lagged after a international flight also sucks. Now this fact is established and we move onto the next car in our train of thought and figure out what we can do about it!

Step 2: Flow Like Water, Leverage Momentum and Direct Your Own Life

There’s no eliminating daylight savings time or time zones. Good luck. Become Dr. Evil and build a continent-destroying space laser and maybe you could coerce the entire world into going along with you, but for all practical purposes, these changes will always occur.

So, instead of trying to build a wall to stop this flow of events entirely (river metaphor here) instead figure out the best way to direct this water so that IT WORKS FOR YOU.

It’s not that hard; humans have been doing it for centuries with electricity producing dams and grain milling mills.

So, clocks will change. Time will change. You want to change your workout routine but have been unable to. Now time is forcing you to change when you sleep and when you wake up. Now let’s put two and two together here and realize what we have is an opportunity to sleep at a reasonable time and wake up at a time of our choosing.

Step 3: Being Strategic and Staying Committed Pays Off

So I’m flying from Taipei, Taiwan to Minneapolis, Minnesota. My time is turned on it’s head. Nigh becomes day and day becomes night. Normally no matter how hard I try I end up staying up until 12 or so wasting time on Facebook or watching Youtube videos.

I’ve always wanted to wake up at 6AM fully rested so I can attack the gym before work. Now I seize my opportunity and make an inconvenience a personal convenience!

I don’t fall right back into the same routine.

I determine when I need to sleep to get 8 hours of sleep and wake up at 6.

I do whatever it takes to stay awake and tired until logic dictates is the best time to sleep.

I sleep at that time, with a couple chugs of Nyquil if I have to.

I wake up at 6 and go to the gym and feel fantastic.

Because I felt so fantastic I stick to my new schedule of being in bed at 9:30 and sleeping at 10 every night.

Yes, time changes, especially large ones created by international travel can be a big disruption to our daily lives but sometimes a disruption is exactly what is needed to force ourselves to take a long look in the mirror and finally follow through on a long-delayed goal.

Being strategic with sleep and waking cycles can help anyone hack their way to a early-morning workout routine.